Qatar's development institutions in Ramadan: Effective contributions to countries most in need

Qatar's development institutions work to build a global movement that contributes to human, social and economic development through the provision of quality education, employment, support for small and micro projects, and welfare programmes, especially in the most needy societies and areas of conflict and disasters.
These institutions are also keen on meeting the needs of children and women, providing them with the tools necessary to support sustainable development and create an environment of peace, security, justice and prosperity.
In the blessed month of Ramadan, Qatar's development institutions, particularly the Education Above All Foundation and Silatech, mount their activities given the religious specificity of Ramadan, and their belief that change can only happen through co-operation.
Since its inception in 2021, the Education Above All Foundation has worked through its programmes – Educate A Child, Al Fakhoora, Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict (PEIC), and Reach Out to Asia – to provide primary education for nearly 59mn out-of-school children, and to promote the education policy of curricula that reduce conflict and build stability and peace in conflict-affected areas.
The total commitments of the Education Above All Foundation amount to more than $2.6bn, with the support of strategic partner Qatar Fund for Development, development banks, the United Nations organisations, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.
More than 14.5mn people benefit from the Foundation's activities in 60 countries, of which approximately $1.5bn support the least developed countries.
In Africa, the Education Above All Foundation has been operating since 2012 in 32 countries, implementing 50 joint projects to ensure access to quality education for nearly 7.5mn out-of-school youth and children, at a total budget of about $1.2bn.
The Foundation also operates in 20 Asian countries with 44 projects supporting more than 7mn out-of-school children and more than 5,000 children at high risk of dropping out of school, at a budget of nearly $10mn.
In statements to the Qatar News Agency (QNA), the director of external relations at the Education Above All Foundation, Lina al-Derham, explained that the Foundation launched during Ramadan this year a campaign to support its projects in a number of countries most in need, and called on philanthropists, private companies and businessmen to contribute to the campaign.
In Palestine, the Foundation launched a three-year programme to enhance the capacities of 30,000 young men and women in Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The Foundation also launched a programme to rebuild education in Gaza through postgraduate scholarships via partnerships with leading institutions and universities to provide an additional 4,000 comprehensive scholarships.
Al-Derham said that in Sudan the Education Above All Foundation launched a joint project with Unicef to reach out to 50,000 children aged 6-13 deprived of schools, in 11 Sudanese states.
She added that the Foundation implements the project "Enrol OOSC Project: Break the Cycle of Poverty" in Burkina Faso, Guatemala, Haiti, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, and Senegal.
The seven are among the lowest 10 countries in terms of the lowest average years of schooling.
The six-year joint project between the Educate A Child programme and the Build On organisation aims to promote comprehensive, high-quality and equitable education and provide lifelong learning opportunities for 160,000 children of primary school age deprived of schools across the project countries, build 1,873 primary schools in rural areas, educate and build capacity of community members, leaders, teachers, government officials and students, and create income-generating initiatives through group products and small individual loans.
Al-Derham said that in Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal, the Foundation is implementing, in co-operation with the United World Schools (UWS), a project to increase retention rates for children at high risk and those most at risk of dropping out primary education in these three countries.
She noted that the Foundation also provides quality education in Zanzibar to 36,000 children.
Meanwhile, Silatech believes that economic empowerment and youth employment is an effective way to restore hope to young people.
Therefore, it always affirms its commitment to addressing the unemployment crisis around the world by empowering more than 5mn young men and women.
To achieve this goal, Silatech signed a number of new agreements aimed at reaching a larger number of young people, including the renewal and expansion of its co-operation agreement with the European Union to implement the second phase of the "Support to Youth Entrepreneurship and Financial Inclusion" project, which aims to empower youth by providing financial grants to finance income-generating projects of young entrepreneurs, and to build their capabilities to create a source of income for them and at the same time employ other young people.
The second phase of the project extends for four years to provide job opportunities and sources of income, and to realise the financial inclusion of more than 40,000 young men and women in 12 Yemeni governorates.
Silatech is also implementing a project in Morocco in partnership with the Gates Foundation and the Education for Employment Foundation, to build the capabilities of Moroccan youth and provide them with the skills to join the labour market.
So far, Silatech has provided about 1,900 job opportunities for young people in Morocco.
It also signed an agreement with the Save the Children Foundation to implement a new project in Somalia.
Silatech launched its Ramadan campaign to support linking youth to jobs in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) as part of its continuous efforts to empower youth economically and socially around the world.
It also focused on mobilising resources and donations to support Silatech projects around the world. – QNA